From a pioneer company manufacturing ball bearings to a knowledge-driven engineering company helping its customers achieve sustainable and competitive business excellence, SKF India has come a long way since it started out as a trading outpost from Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1923.
Today, through its five technology-centric platforms of bearings and units, seals, mechatronics, lubrication solutions and services, SKF provides sustainable solutions to its partner companies to achieve breakthroughs in friction reduction, energy efficiency and equipment longevity and reliability.
In an interview with Manufacturing Today, SKF India Managing Director Manish Bhatnagar tells how his company has created business models and crafted strategies that enable its customers to have a competitive edge in their market.
“Products and solutions that we develop have found eager acceptance among our customers while delivering value to suppliers, employees and wider society,” he says.
“Value to shareholders naturally follows.”
The company’s revenues from operations scaled at Rs. 2,632.9 crore for the FY 20-21 and in spite of the pandemic and 50 days closure in 2020, SKF India managed to keep it rolling to end at a PAT of Rs. 297.7 crore.
Unique Value Proposition
Among its models that crop up in conversations in the industry circles of late is the Rotating Equipment Performance (REP), a uniquely structured value proposition. Bhatnagar explains REP is a fee-based business model with incentives based on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) such as uptime and productivity. The model, which provides downtime reduction and reliability enhancing solutions to its customers, is part of the company’s strategic focus to take the company from a product seller to a solution provider.
“With REP we are moving from selling products to selling performance and uptime,” he says.
SKF is conventionally known in the industry for the partners it keeps and the successes it has carved out partnering with them. SAIL, Siemens and the Indian Railways are some of the big players it partners with. At the same time its tools enabling customers to do business digitally through web and mobile platform is in line with its commitment of expanding reach to customers across all market segments.
“A combination of environmental considerations, digitalization, and the shift from transactional to fee-based business models is revolutionising the way business is done and how SKF provides value to customers,” says Bhatnagar who drives strategy for SKF group in India.
He goes on to cite the example of a first-of-its-kind pay-per-ton five-year performance contract with SAIL. An initiative that is aimed at helping customers improve the efficiency of their machines as SKF demonstrates the value of its performance-based business model. “Partnering success, SKF has increased its share of bearing from 0% to 100% with this win-win model.”
For the Indian Railways, SKF is a provider of solutions and services, including bearings, seals, lubrication, the design of axle box and drive system bearings and condition monitoring systems.
“We develop solutions that help increase reliability, raise rail capacity, and lower operating costs by monitoring critical assets to avoid unplanned stops with proactive, condition-based maintenance. We also deliver solutions designed to extend maintenance intervals and lower maintenance costs thereby increasing the uptime of railways,” says Bhatnagar.
Even when the larger companies are rapidly adopting digitalisation and are in a position to leverage technology and solutions like the ones provided by SKF, there is a danger of smaller players being left out for want of capabilities.
He says they recognizes that the power of digitalisation is not isolated in segments of the business but across the entire value chain.
“We work with our network of partners and stakeholders to ensure they have the right digital capabilities that help them improve efficiency, lowers costs, and supports their continuous growth,” says SKF’s MD.
He mentions Digiconnect, a digital platform designed by SKF to build these capabilities. Some of its key features include real-time updates and intelligence on activities, secured and separate access for distributors and their sales force, hierarchy-wise data visualisation, dash boards and reports.
Smart Manufacturing
The company currently has three manufacturing facilities, four solution factories, 11 sales offices, eight warehouses and a supplier network of over 300 distributors.
With Industry 4.0 at the doorstep; digitised, digitalised, smart manufacturing at connected factories with innovative technologies across operations is rapidly gaining grounds.
Bhatnagar’s colleague Shailesh Sharma who is the Director of Manufacturing at SKF India Ltd. shares the roadmap the company has laid out for itself. “We have a well-defined strategic roadmap to reach Manufacturing 4.0 by 2023-2024.”
The company has apparently adopted an approach of an incremental transformation of the Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering and People processes to achieve its goal.
“At SKF we are currently working on driving the digital transformation by integrating automation, software, and cutting-edge technologies.”
It Includes Predictive Cockpit (Condition monitoring) for maintenance, additive manufacturing for shop supplies, an AI-enabled Vision Inspection system supporting M2M & E2M connectivity, and a connected supply chain and full value chain to effectively manage and collaborate with supply chain partners, elaborates Sharma who is leading manufacturing and operational excellence at SKF India.
Global acquisition of Presenso’s AI capability, upgradation of machine controls to the latest PLC with advanced features, utilisation of sensor technology, robotics and SCADA system are some of the pointers to SKFs drive towards manufacturing 4.0.
Real-time remote monitoring of equipment; predictive maintenance; real-time energy monitoring, modern tools of supply chain management and connectivity across functions are some of the essentials of modernising manufacturing.
In the bearing business, digitalisation, together with cost effective and accessible equipment monitoring based on sensor technology, has accelerated the transformation.
“We have successfully installed a Channel Monitoring System at our Pune factory for real-time equipment performance monitoring and a maintenance cockpit for real-time machine health monitoring. With access to real-time and remote monitoring, operators will be empowered to better predict and plan machine maintenance schedules, as well as develop long-term statistical evaluations of diagnostic data,” says SKF Managing Director Bhatnagar, with three decades of experience in business operations.
“With the Equipment to Machine (E2M) connectivity project, we focus on reducing scrap and man-machine intervention while improving built-in quality (BIQ),” he further adds.
Deployment of e-Kanban for end-to-end material flow visibility across the value chain, the Gantt Online project expected to improve the flow efficiency from production to shipment, are some of the other actions towards industry 4.0.
Upskilling of workforce, use of Business Intelligence tools and use of Data Visualisation tools are some of the other hallmarks of modern manufacturing.
SKF Managing Director explains in great details the initiatives taken by the company in this regard.
“SKF invests in new skills and in developing the employees by enabling virtual, agile, and continuous learning, with a high attention on the capabilities of the future.”
Kushal 4.0 program to provide training through IIOT labs is a case in point. Power BI which is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool for converting data from various data sources into interactive dashboards and analysis reports is another example.
“SKF constantly adapts its ways of working to ensure a workforce and leadership that is more agile and able to respond quickly to external change and new digital opportunities and will continue to make investments in digital tools in the coming years,” declares the MD.
Sustainable manufacturing
With the call by the Indian government for a ‘Zero defect, zero effect’ manufacturing, the country’s attention has drawn to the manufacturing practices adopted by business houses. Of the various constituents of environment friendly practices; reduction in carbon emission, practice of remanufacturing or circular manufacturing and use of clean energy are topping the scrutiny list. SKF is trying to fit the bill.
“We’ve been completely aligned with the ethos of ‘Zero Defect, Zero Effect. Apart from investments in world-class manufacturing, SKF is committed for all our manufacturing operations around the world to become Carbon Neutral by 2030,” says Sharma, Director of Manufacturing.
He talks about Cleantech, a strategic initiative aimed at reducing the customers’ environment impact and energy consumption. In fact, along with SKF’s competence around the rotating shaft, it is their ability to not just improve machine performance but also help reduce the CO2 emissions of their customers that puts SKF in the driving seat, Sharma elaborates.
On the remanufacturing front, he says the company recognises the importance of re-manufacturing and this recognition plays a central role in its efforts to reuse and recycle products.
“In fact, bearing remanufacturing can result in a significant reduction of CO2 emissions compared to the production of a new bearing. Remanufacturing also requires up to 97% less energy than producing a new bearing,” Sharma says. “By using SKF condition monitoring to determine when it’s the right time to take the bearing out of the application, we can give it a second or third life through remanufacturing,” he adds explaining how SKF’s solutions are intrinsically environment friendly.
Saving about 1100 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2020 just by refurbishing 11000 railway bearings and routinely offering repair, re-manufacturing and refurnishing solutions to customers for Spindles, bearings and gearboxes are some of the examples Sharma cites to establish SKF’s commitment to environment through circular manufacturing.
And it is only going to get better as the full potential of remanufacturing is yet to be realised, he says. “Remanufacturing leads to drastically lower environmental impact, reduces costs and increases profitability, as well as creates jobs. There is a huge potential since only a fraction of all bearings are remanufactured today,” says Sharma who in his role is focused on developing processes and procedures for manufacturing operations.
Clean energy is another point of attention at SKF according to Sharma. Installation of roof top solar of 1 MW capacity over factory premises and corporate office covering around 8000 square meters, a 1056 MWH of roof top solar generation for 2020, a 1057 MWH procurement of wind energy in 2020, an 8.4 MWH capacity captive farm solar power purchase agreement and a 13 GHW annual generation completed in 2021 are some of the examples he cites to establish his company’s commitment of clean energy and sustainable manufacturing.
Also, its engagement with clean source of energy has drawn the company in to wind energy, a growing segment in India.
Harnessing wind
SKF helps wind farm owners, operators and maintenance providers optimise turbine performance, reliability, and energy output to help drive uptime and increase performance at every turbine life-cycle stage.
“SKF’s integrated solutions comprising of Data Analysis through IoT, Remote Diagnostic Solutions, and précised engineering products, helps simplify the entire process of maintenance of wind turbines. Today SKF helps wind farm owners, operators and maintenance providers optimise turbine performance, reliability, and energy output to help drive uptime and increase performance at every turbine life-cycle stage,” says Bhatnagar.
Unique industry-specific solutions like Wind Spherical roller bearing (Wind SRB) that reduces Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and online monitoring devices like IMx series that provides for early fault detection system and minimises maintenance costs are among some of the offerings from the company while some more are in progress.
“We are working on a holistic data and insights repository. It collects CMS events, assets’ history (from ERP or CMMS source), gives access to bearing availability, creates management and fleet dashboard, and integrates specific AI Algorithms. This platform has the ambition to optimise O&M Planning and allow Predictive Maintenance delivery,” says SKF MD.
Disruption nullified
The pandemic induced lock-downs are just left behind. Out from the scare, enterprises are looking for ways to pre-empt any such future disruption.
SKF has launched Emarketplace, an online store offering products from automotive and industrial business for retail and industrial buyers. All the process industries, MSME’s, traders, retailers, automotive aftermarket retailers, mechanics and fleet owners will benefit from this wide range of products and solutions.
“SKF globally is leveraging data-driven technologies that deliver valuable insights and predictions across the business. This includes advanced analytic technologies to optimise inventory, as well as machine learning models optimising logistics and warehouse operations,” says Bhatnagar whose passion includes developing future-ready businesses.